American Factory is an important and powerful documentary, telling the story of cultural clashes and labor-management relations as a Chinese firm re-opened and re-purposed a close automotive plant in Ohio. Six years earlier, in 2008, General Motors (GM) shuttered its Moraine, Ohio automotive plant, rendering thousands of workers unemployed. Then in 2014, China’s Fuyao Glass Industry Group Co. Ltd. purchased the facility and sought to re-purpose the plant to manufacture automotive glass. With it came a bold vision, workers emigrating from China would pair up with re-hired GM employees. Despite a substantial pay cut, the re-opening of the factory signaled a new hope for the American workers.

Alas, it would not be easy.

Using a fly-on-the-wall style of documentary, directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert allow viewers an up-close look at both American and Chinese workers and managers as they struggled to bring the new plant to profitability. The camera was kept very close as workers formed, stormed and, to an extent, normed during the first couple years. But some cultural barriers proved too difficult for quick solutions. From differing conceptions of company loyalty to opposing perspectives on corporate values workplace relations, safety, compensation, and unionization, Bognar and Reichert showed how the Americans and Chinese faced and (only occasionally resolved) conflict.

We analyzed this film through the lenses of several important organization theories and management science classics. Among them are Herzberg’s two-factor theory covering hygiene and motivation forms of incentives and Maurice Halbwachs’ concept of collective memory and ‘spaces’ — such as how the American workers recalled the facility’s layout for automotive manufacturing and therefore struggled with the changes being imposed by the Chinese managers.

 Watch with us:

Reichert, Je. & Benello, J. P. (Producers), & Bognar, S. & Reichert, Ju. (Directors). (2019). American factory. USA: Higher Ground Productions.

To Learn More:

Halbwachs, M., (1992). On collective memory. University of Chicago Press. http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/hawlbachsspace.pdf

Herzberg, F. (1966). Work and The Nature of Man. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co.

Herzberg, F., Mausner, B. and Snyderman, B. (1959). The Motivation to Work. New York: Wiley

Weick, K. E., & Sutcliffe, K. M. (2011). Managing the unexpected: Resilient performance in an age of uncertainty (Vol. 8). John Wiley & Sons.

Related Episodes from the Talking About Organizations Podcast:

Episode 16, “Contingency Theory — Lawrence & Lorsch.”

Episode 54, “Measuring Organizational Cultures — Hofstede.”

Episode 60, “Contingency Theory — Woodward.”